AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Well, that’s good.”
Tension hummed between them. She didn’t think she was imagining it. He looked at her, his blue eyes roaming over her curves. She wasn’t overly vain, but she had certainly never had trouble attracting a man when she wanted to. Of course, she was always very circumspect. She didn’t get physical with just anybody.
She had all these rules. Rules that she lived by, rules that made her worthy of the kind of help the Kings had given her.
She knew that Denver particularly was making up for the sins of his father. But she saw a helping hand that he didn’t have to give. He did more for her than he had to.
She had never wanted to waste that. She had never wanted to be unworthy of it. So she got good grades, and she never drank to excess.
She only dated good men who had decent prospects, and she never had sex just for the sake of it.
Just thinking the wordsexfired something deep inside of her as she looked at Jude.
He was every bad boy fantasy she’d never allowed herself to have.
She hadn’t expected this. They had been teenagers when they’d seen each other last, and she was certain that they had wanted each other. But with an innocence.
Sure, they hadn’t lived an innocent life. The adults around them did nothing to shield them from the rougher parts of the world, but they had shielded each other. So there had still been a bit of innocence in them.
She had wanted to kiss him then.
Twenty-two-year-old Penny wanted to tear his clothes off. She felt her own breathing become ragged.
“We haven’t seen each other a long time,” he said.
“No, we haven’t,” she said, becoming breathless.
“You shouldn’t look at me that way. Because I think you’re a nice girl, aren’t you?”
“Historically,” she said, her eyes lingering on his muscular forearm.
“How good?”
“Mostly,” she said, her eyes flicking up to meet his. “I’m not a nun.”
“Good to know. I’m not a monk. But then, I also never claimed to be good.”
She could imagine him cutting a swath through a raft of cheap motels, one-night stands with girls in painted-on tank tops and short shorts. It should’ve made her angry to think of it. Instead, she found herself getting aroused. He was the kind of man who probably knew his way around a woman’s body. More than she could say for some of those good boys at school. That was the other thing. She had tried—so hard—to be an emblem of something sweet and lovely, sophisticated and demure when she had been away at school. She had tried to fit in with the people around her. With the group that she was trying to cultivate so that she could wiggle herself into that different life she was trying to achieve.
But none of it was her. Her college friends didn’t really know her. Even the Kings didn’t really know her. Because she had come to them and she had made sure that she was only sweet. Only ever demure and out of the way because she had never wanted to cause them any trouble. Not when they had done so much for her.
Jude was different. He knew where she was from. He knew who she was. Maybe they hadn’t seen each other in years, but in some ways, Jude was the only person who really knew her. Before she had cultivated a mask of any kind. He had always been her wildness. He had always been the rougher part of her. And suddenly, she missed it.
“Do you know how badly I wanted you back then?”
She felt like her stomach had balled itself up into a fist. “I don’t know,” she said. “Was it as badly as I wanted you?”
“Oh don’t tell me that. Not if you want to walk out of here chaste.”
“Whoever said that I was chaste?” she asked.
“You have that look about you.”
“I said Iwasn’ta nun. I thought the lack of chastity was implied.”
“Let me guess. You like a guy to take you out. A few dinners, some conversation. Gestures toward the future. Am I right?”
“Usually.”Always.
